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Twitter user Gurwinder regularly shares thoughts on various topics, including psychology, philosophy, and politics. However, one of their recent uploads offers all the above. And then some.

On February 11, Gurwinder posted a mega-thread, promising to broaden everyone's understanding of the world in just a few minutes.

In it, there are 40 concepts about human behavior and the world we live in. Scientists often spend years studying, researching, and analyzing complex phenomena but Gurwinder cuts to the very core of their findings and manages to explain everything in plain English.

Whether you decide to scroll through the entire thread or have time for only a couple of entries, I can assure you that it will be well worth it.

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    #2

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    Lauren Caswell
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Like the spinach error? http://super-myths.blogspot.com/2010/12/spinach-iron-decimal-point-error-myth.html?m=1

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    Such conclusions begin with a scientific method that allows us to collect measurable, empirical evidence in an experiment related to a hypothesis (often in the form of an if/then statement), designed to support or contradict a theory.

    And that's really exciting. "As a field biologist, my favorite part of the scientific method is being in the field collecting the data," Jaime Tanner, a professor of biology at Marlboro College, told Live Science. "But what really makes that fun is knowing that you are trying to answer an interesting question. So the first step in identifying questions and generating possible answers (hypotheses) is also very important and is a creative process. Then once you collect the data, you analyze it to see if your hypothesis is supported or not."

    #3

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    Elsker
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I know for a fact this is true:)) found it comforting actually. Though maybe it's not very social.

    Chris Jones
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It's a bit like when you remember something that you did that was horrifyingly embarrassing. It embarrassed YOU so it sticks in YOUR head. Everyone else is concentrating on the things that THEY did that were embarrassing. I find that comforting! At 3 am when I think 'why did I DO THAT?!'

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    Jo Choto
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I wish I had been able to understand this when I was younger. I was SO shy and SO self-conscious, it was crippling. Now I just don't give a s**t.

    Neill Powell
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Be comforted in the fact that your cringe moments that keep you up an night, have none of the emotional weight (therefore staying-power) in the minds of others. Most people will have a rapidly fading memory of it over time as well.

    Chris Jones
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Oh, I literally just posted a comment making the same point and then scrolled down and this... totally agree Neill.

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    Friend Kelli
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I feel like I'm on stage when I'm in my backyard because we're surrounded by apartment buildings. It makes me walk weird.

    Rissie
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yeah, true that. Unless you run into people like me. I'm looking at you. I like observing people, because when they actually are being observed, they hardly ever notice.

    GenericPanda09
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    this is something I tell my socially anxious missus when she's recalling her day and how she felt everyone was looking at her when she stuttered a response to the checkout person at the supermarket or such...... they likely don't remember or care cause they're just trying to get through their own day, not going home laughing to their partner at her because she said yes twice in a row.

    Blackstone
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I can't count the number of times I've replied with "you too!" To a cashier when that wasn't the appropriate response. At this point I just shrug. They know what I meant, probably. If not, I blame the lack of social interaction for the last couple years. Yep. That's definitely the only reason I'm socially awkward /s.

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    Lily Winchester
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    1 year ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Everytime I'm in public I worry so much about what others think, that once I get home I realize I can't remember anything about the other people I saw, so it's nice to know they probably don't remember anything about me either.

    azubi
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Not sure about that. I found out people notice far more often when I pick my nose than I'd appre iate.

    Becky Graybeal
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Exactly. Don't worry about them watching you dance, they're all worried about being watched.

    Something
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is somewhat true, but there are always some people staring at you to evaluate how they compare to you.

    Adrian
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    The opposite is true for some people:- "they often get anxious feelings that their every move is NOT being scrutinized ..." And so we get Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, and most other attention-seeking politicians.

    Jyndaru
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Realized this years ago, when I was nervous about highschool. Made my life 10 times easier. I'm still an anxious person, but I feel better knowing everyone else is pretty much stuck in their own heads too.

    Blackstone
    Community Member
    2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I remember reading a motivational poster somewhere that said something like "what others think of me is none of my business". It just made me think about how awful I'd feel if anyone knew what I was thinking because I might not prefer their hair a certain way, but it's their choice and I'd feel awful if they were discouraged by my thoughts. And if I feel that way, others probably do too. They are probably far more concerned with what I think of them than how they think of me and would be mortified if I suddenly knew their thoughts. It was oddly reassuring.

    ChickyChicky
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I think this is true of adults, but it can be false for teens. Teens scrutinize the heck out of each other, often looking for the barest flaw. Just wearing your shirt tucked in was fodder for ridicule at my school. Or parting your hair on the wrong side. I'm not kidding.

    Blackstone
    Community Member
    2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It's true, but I don't know think they genuinely care what others are wearing or doing. It's a way of shifting focus off of themselves because they are so self conscious. I know that makes a fat lot of difference when you're the one being ridiculed, but knowing that it isn't a real flaw on your part can maybe take a bit of the sting out maybe. As an adult, I only talk to one person from my high school, and we only reconnected recently through our kids. But after high school, at least in my experience, most people acted like "what happened in high school, stays in high school". Even the ones that used to be bullies (that I've met again since) have been super nice. Obviously that's not always the case because there's plenty of jerks out there and they went to school somewhere, but high school is just a really weird social experiment that isn't really replicated in society anywhere else.

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    An Co
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Amazon, Facebook, Google, etc. all scrutinize your every move, with the utmost attention. But they truly hope you are totally embarrassed about every step so they can sell you things to 'fix' it.

    Winston
    Community Member
    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yeah I always try to remind myself of this when I get stressed

    Justine Queequag
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    It's delusional to think people are scrutinizing you especially when you're not even that interesting

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    According to Highline College, the steps of the scientific method are something like this:

    • Make an observation or observations;
    • Form a hypothesis — a tentative description of what's been observed, and make predictions based on that hypothesis;
    • Test the hypothesis and predictions in an experiment that can be reproduced;
    • Analyze the data and draw conclusions; accept or reject the hypothesis or modify the hypothesis if necessary;
    • Reproduce the experiment until there are no discrepancies between observations and theory.
    #6

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    SlartyBlartFast
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    2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Few years back, had been promoted to low lvl manager and was going nuts, trying to fix every problem so as to be well evaluated. One long time high lvl manager saw me once and said: "if we solve every problem we will not be needed to come to work tomorrow".

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    "Replication of methods and results is my favorite step in the scientific method," Moshe Pritsker, a former post-doctoral researcher at Harvard Medical School and CEO of JoVE, also told Live Science.

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    "The reproducibility of published experiments is the foundation of science. No reproducibility — no science."

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    KatHat
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Yes, we're finding that out now, to our great cost. The psychological harm that would have to be done for people to admit "He DIDN'T make America great again; he only passed one piece of legislation (tax cuts) which increased the debt and deficit astonishingly, and there's increasing evidence he is a white supremacist and wannabe-autocrat who lies endlessly and is actually guilty of everything he has accused others of" is massive, and people want to avoid it, so they keep defending him. Those who follow this comment with remarks like "living rent free in your head" will prove my point ;)

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    Donkey boi
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I would argue that people make their avatar based on the personality they want to have/show.

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    The backbone of the scientific method is generating and testing a hypothesis. After an idea has been confirmed over many experiments, it can be called a scientific theory. While a theory explains a phenomenon, a scientific law provides a description of a phenomenon, according to The University of Waikato. Take the law of conservation of energy, for example. It is the first law of thermodynamics and says that energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

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    A law describes an observed phenomenon, but it doesn't explain why the phenomenon exists or what causes it. "In science, laws are a starting place," said Peter Coppinger, an associate professor of biology and biomedical engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. "From there, scientists can then ask the questions, 'Why and how?'"

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    Display Name
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed and if you read the newspaper you are misinformed. - Mark Twain

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    May
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If I remember correctly, it wasn't that people wanted to criticise, it was that they couldn't stand letting a false statement stand uncorrected. It's the need to go "I think you'll find.." which isn't quite the same at criticism (and a concept I do realize I've just demonstrated)

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    Troux
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    An old, but hilarious and memorable article about how this plays out on Fox News, who likes to title every story with "WAR ON [anything favorable to the audience]." https://www.cracked.com/blog/the-8-greatest-wars-ever-fought-by-fox-news

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    Laws are usually considered to be without exception, though some get modified over time if further testing finds discrepancies. For instance, Newton's laws of motion describe everything we've observed in the macroscopic world, but they break down at the subatomic level.

    But this does not mean theories are meaningless. For a hypothesis to become a theory, scientists have to conduct rigorous testing, typically across multiple disciplines. Saying something is "just a theory" can be misleading as the scientific definition of "theory" and the layperson's understanding of it can be very different. To most people, a theory is a hunch but in science, it's the framework for observations and facts.

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    Paul Davis
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    As a previous journalist I always took "burying the lede" as a criticism that you missed the real story in your story and need to rethink it. Outside of organizations who are only interested in propaganda (Fox News) most journalists I know would be ashamed, and have no motivation, to do this purposely.

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    Donkey boi
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This doesn't work on Deborah! I got her to do me a favour once, now the resentment levels are through the roof!

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    KatHat
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Tribalism is less dangerous if people also develop some self-awareness. The ability to self-examine and say "I may not be being consistent here" or "If I believe X (which I like) then logically that leads to Y (which I don't like at all) but the two are bound together so I can't just pick X and ignore Y" is absolutely crucial to being balanced but a lot of people do not seem to be able to be self-aware at all.

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    Jo Choto
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    For aeons, we didn't have a clue what the world around us meant, hence all religious feeling of any kind, despite now having most of the answers.

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    Probably all of us know someone who constantly questions and challenges everything they see and hear. No matter how much evidence is in front of them.

    "The quality of cynicism, in its extreme, can be one component of the personality trait known as Machiavellianism," Susan Krauss Whitbourne, a professor emerita of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, wrote in Psychology Today. "You might already know what this quality is just by the term alone, but its formal definition includes not just a tendency to manipulate and exploit others, but also a deeply-held belief that others are, as the saying goes, 'out to get them.'"

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    KatHat
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I want to upvote this entry but of course they're all numbered so I can't! This is so important. My favorite example of this right now is climate change. We have SO MANY SOLUTIONS and around 25% of emissions reductions can be achieved at the normal household level. And yet there are so many people saying "Oh, it's all big business, it's out of our hands, we're doomed" etc. We are not doomed. Things are bad but you CAN take action. Top thing you can do: 1. Throw away less food. Next best: 2. Eat less meat (particularly beef). Those are ACHIEVABLE. Problem-solving FTW! 🙂

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    Artsy Bookworm
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Some of my teachers uses to tell us to find someone who can sit with us so that we can explain the things we learnt that day. Or at least sir a doll or something in front of us and teach it. I have subjected my mom to a lot of my "teaching" over the years and still do. She studied commerce and I'm a science student so that makes it hard sometimes but I think she understands some of the stuff I talk about. And it makes me really happy when she does

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    Stephanie IV
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    2 years ago (edited) DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    If you grew up in Germany after the war and before 1989, you know how hard the Cold War was fought in our heads. Both, West and East have constantly been trying to picture each other as the villain.

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    "In research on the underlying motivation of the Machiavellian, TU Dorman University's Christian Blötner and Sebastian Bergold proposed that what they call 'avoidance' motivation leads these individuals to experience a deep sense of distrust and highly 'negative views of human nature," Whitbourne explained.

    But not all cynics would qualify as people high on this overall trait of Machiavellianism. "It's possible that the very skeptical have simply developed a so-called 'cognitive style,' or analytical type of mindset that causes them to look at situations from all possible angles."

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    Scagsy
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Imagine if somebody set out to write a song all about irony. Imagine if that song didn't contain a single example of irony. And it was titled 'Ironic'. Isn't that ironic? Maybe Alanis was playing the long game all along.

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    Al Christensen
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I disagree. For example, graphs A and B could be of the same data but viewed from different axes. Likewise, C could be the same data, but more accurately shown.

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    "Indeed, you might argue that some form of cynicism is adaptive," Whitbourne said. "Think about the highly gullible people you know who are easily swayed by whatever winds might be sweeping over the media landscape. Not only could they put themselves at risk for being swindled by the ads that fund the media landscape, but they can also be led to accept faulty information that puts their health and well-being in jeopardy. Maybe it is better to think twice or perhaps three times before rushing into such a poor decision."

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    Paul Davis
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    I've also heard this argument misapplied to a degree. If you have someone who is a constant, selfish, lying manipulator, and that person seems to come up with a good idea, it's time to examine that idea very closely. Not because that person couldn't possibly suggest something helpful and good, but because of the high likelihood that they're presenting misleading facts along with it, or misrepresenting what the effects will be, because you know the person must have a selfish agenda behind the idea or they would never ever bring it up.

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    In fact, knowing why some people believe in unsubstantiated claims and why misinformation guides their actions can be a valuable tool for resisting these traps. If you question loud phrases, you aren't automatically a cynic. Maybe you're just (a very healthy) skeptic.

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    Jo Choto
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Just another way that shows that eyewitnesses are one of the least reliable factors in determining guilt.

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    Hanni
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    And that's how you know a public person is talking BS when they bring up the "American People".

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    Luther von Wolfen
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is basically what Diogenes the Cynic said. You have to get outside of your society's norms to see your society as it is.

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    Claire Stanfield
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    Describing Zersetzung like this, would be like describing the Hindenburg disaster as 'an inconveniently timed surprise campfire'. It was systematic deconstruction of people's lives to prevent them from any rebellion against the state - including ruining their careers, their home life, separating them from their loved ones, their children. It was targeting the human soul, it wasn't an April Fool's prank.

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    #39

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    Scagsy
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    2 years ago DotsCreated by potrace 1.15, written by Peter Selinger 2001-2017

    This is way longer than the seven minutes advertised but I'll let it slide because it's quite interesting.

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    People loved the thread and some even provided more interesting insights